The Punisher Imagines - Tumblr Posts

I Gotchu

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Febuwhump Prompt - Used as an experiment

Prompt - ‘I'd fight the whole world for you, so rest now, you're safe with me.’

Frank had been sitting on the same rooftop for three days now, watching as people came and went from the building across the street. He knew the routines, he knew the shift changes, he knew which routes were patrolled and yet he still didn’t know what for, he didn’t know why this gang had shifted from killing every night to hiding away in an abandoned warehouse.

Sometimes he heard screams echoing from inside, heard them from his position all the way across the street and grimaced as he thought of what was happening inside. Tomorrow night he was going to move in, rid the world of the newest gang to pop up in Hell’s Kitchen and get in and out before he had Red on his arse, spouting the word of God and redemption to him.

A small chuckle made its way out of Frank’s throat before he heard the screaming start up. It was always the same scream, scared and in pain but try as he might Frank couldn’t get even a hint of what was happening.

He listened to those screams for hours before he sat down with a grunt and started assembling his weapons. Frank was a strong man but even he couldn’t listen to those screams anymore and what was the difference between going in today and going in tomorrow.

He waited until well into the night before he finally stood up again and made his way down to the building in between the shift changes, knowing that he could sneak in through the side doors and start taking the gang members down quick and easy from there.

It was laughably easy to walk into the warehouse, even more laughable how quickly he killed seven men, silently making his way through the building. He could still hear the screams and made his way towards them, checking all the rooms as he went.

The warehouse was big but it didn’t take him long to arrive at a metal door, rolling his eyes as he saw he couldn’t enter without a damn badge. He looked around at the dead bodies he’d left behind him before squatting down and rummaging through the pockets, nodding as he found the card and let himself through the doors.

“Shit,” he muttered as he looked around, this section of the building was nothing like the rundown shit hole he’d just come through, no this bit was clean and sterile, it smelt strongly like a hospital causing Frank to turn his nose up and walk further into the room.

There was only one door in the room, another metal one but he couldn’t see anywhere to scan in so tried his luck with pushing the door open, raising his gun as it opened for him quietly.

“Stop!” The voice screamed again causing Frank to stop in his tracks next to the door that shut with a quiet click that couldn’t be heard over the begging.

“Stop, stop! Please!” The voice screamed, vocal cords sounding hoarse and the screams were mixed with sobs and cut off when the need to breathe became too much, the sound of panting filling the room.

Frank watched, unnoticed in the shadows, as a girl writhed against the restraints that tied her wrists to the big, metal chair, restraints also tied your ankles and torso to ensure she couldn’t escape.

Frank thought it seemed a bit overkill, you looked tiny against the size of the chair, face sunken from lack of food, skin grey as you threw your head back in pain. Frank continued to watch, trying to see where the pain was coming from as the men in the room stood away from you, all staring at chart boards and the information that was showing on the computer screens.

That’s when Frank saw the white pads stuck to your temples and knew enough to know they were shocking you.

He watched as you bucked up in the seat, an ear deafening scream leaving your mouth as Frank watched in confusion as every object in the room began to float higher and higher before smashing down to the ground.

The other men in the room looked at their ruined computers before looking at you with disturbing grins and wild eyes.

Frank watched as one of the men stepped forward until he was next to you, leaning down slightly so he was face to face as he ran a finger along your cheek down to your chin and pulled your head up.

You looked up at him panting and Frank could see the defeat in your eyes, tears made their way silently down your face.

Frank lifted the gun up, aiming it at the man who stood close to you and took the shot without hesitation causing everybody’s attention to snap to him, everybody but yours. You just closed your eyes as you felt defeat run through you.

It was a quick fight, if you could even call Frank turning his gun on the other men in the room and taking them out before they could even draw their own weapons a fight. Then he moved the gun so it rested on his back and made his way over to you, crouching down so he was below you.

“Hey,” He said, voice quiet and gentle but he made sure not to touch you, “You’re gonna be just fine, m’gonna get you outta here.”

You let your eyes open, looking down at the man who shot you a comforting smile, letting your eyebrows knit together in confusion.

“You’re not-” You began but cut yourself off as you started coughing, turning your head into your shoulder before taking a deep breath, voice hoarse after days of screaming and no water, “You’re not with them?”

“Not with them,” Frank confirmed, still smiling as he stood up, “I’ve gotta take these off you, alright?”

“Please,” You gasped, tilting your head towards him, “Please, please get them off.”

“Alright, I gotchu, you’re ok.” He murmured as he pulled the shock pads off as gently as he could, trying not to let the smile fall as he watched you wince and grimace. “Sorry,” He said as he had to tug harder to pull one from your temple.

It didn’t take too long for him to get you unhooked but when he helped you up from the chair he had to grab you before you hit the floor, legs weak and jelly like after days of not moving.

“I gotchu,” Frank told you again, wrapping your arm around his neck, his arm resting around your waist as he began to lead you out of the room.

It was slow work getting you out of the building, he had no trouble taking your weight himself, watching as your eyes closed and your head drifted onto his shoulder.

“Hey, you awake?” He asked once he finally got you both outside.

“M’awake,” you slurred, relishing in the feel of the cold air and the wind against your skin.

“Attagirl,” He praised and a small, tired smile made its way onto your face, “You got somewhere I can take you?” He asked as he crossed the street and made his way over to the van.

“They killed everyone,” You told him, blinking against the sudden flood of tears. “Killed them all.” You cried, lips pursing as you tried to hold back a sob but failed.

Frank looked at you sympathetically before turning you so your head rested on his chest, your hand coming up to grip the vest as you cried, remembering as the gang busted into the tiny apartment, killing everybody in sight, everybody who was there because they had nowhere else to go.

You had used your gifts, ripping the guns from their hands but you were too late.

“I was too late,” You mumbled against the vest and Frank shushed you, his palm resting against your hair as he held you close.

“C’mon,” He said once the tears had slowed down, leaving you sniffing and pulling away. Frank let his hand move from the back of your head over to your cheeks, using his thumbs to gently brush away the tears. “We’ll go back to my place, yeah, get some food in you.”

You didn’t hesitate to climb into the van as he opened the door for you, you probably should have but what more did you have to lose? Besides, the man had just saved you and there was something about him that seemed trustworthy.

The car drive was silent as you closed your eyes and let your head rest against the cold window, at some point falling into a light slumber. Frank glanced over at you and smiled before he turned into the first food place he saw and parked the van up.

“Hey, I’ll be right back, alright?” Frank said quietly, watching how your eyes snapped open as you turned to him but before you could speak he was already talking, voice low and calm, “I’ll be right back, just gonna grab us some food. You’ll be fine, I ain’t letting anything happen to you.”

You looked at him for a moment, seeing nothing on his face to indicate he was lying and nodded uncertainty.

“Attagirl,” Frank murmured before climbing out of the van.

Your knitted eyebrows relaxed as you smiled at the retreating figure before you settled back against the window and let your eyes close once more.

When you woke again you could smell fast food and felt the van come to a gentle stop but kept your eyes closed and only seconds later you heard the man’s seat belt unbuckle and the rustle of the food bag.

Frank got out of the van and made his way around to your side, watching as you blinked tiredly and sat up. He opened the door and reached over you to unbuckle your belt before he carefully helped you from the car, wrapping his arm around your shoulder and taking most of your weight as he led you up to his apartment.

“Shush,” Frank muttered to the dog who immediately started barking and dancing around his legs as the two of you entered the apartment. “C’mon.” He mumbled to you as he led you over to the sofa and gently lowered you onto down, watching you reach forward and pet Max as he went over to shut the door.

It wasn’t long before the two of you were settled in and eating, you were never more thankful for food than in that moment, days without anything to eat or drink had you feeling so weak, add that with the experiments and you were in desperate need of rest.

“So,” Frank said, pausing to take a sip of his drink, “what’s your name anyway?”

“Y/N,” You told him softly, holding out a french fry to the dog and missing the fond eye roll Frank gave.

“How’d you end up with them?” He asked, leaning back in his seat and giving you his full attention.

You shifted in your own seat before clearing your throat and looking over to Frank.

“Do you know who they were?” You asked him instead, watching as he raised an eyebrow at you and then shook his head. “The men in the room I was in, they were scientists. I was a part of their study years ago when I was a kid, I was sick and one of the doctors told my parents about a new drug that could save my life but it wasn’t approved yet so it all had to be administered privately. My parents signed me out of the hospital that day and then I don’t remember much just that I never saw my parents again. Whatever they did to me gave me these, these,” Here you trailed off, looking away from Frank and down at the dog who had settled in between your knees.

You smiled as you leaned forward and began petting the dog, finding it was easier to tell your story that way.

“These abilities.” You finally settled on. “I was there for a long time and then one day the pain was too much, you know? I didn’t even mean to do it, didn’t know how I did it but one minute they were pinning me down and injecting me with something and the next,” You paused again to let out a shuddering breath, blinking against the tears, “The next they were all pinned to the wall, each of them with needles barely an inch away from their faces.”

Frank listened to your story, trying to keep his face neutral so that he didn’t scare you when inside he was furious. How the hell could people do that to a kid? A scared little kid who was ripped away from her parents and turned into something she didn’t want to be. His heart ached for you and as he saw a tear make its way down your cheek he stood up and took a seat on the sofa next to you, gently cupping the back of your head and guiding you over to him.

“You’re ok, you’re safe now,” He murmured as he held you close.

You willingly went and buried your face in his chest, hand coming up to fist the shirt he wore as you desperately tried to hold back the tears but a few more managed to trickle down your cheek.

It took a few moments before you were able to take a deep, steadying breath, the sound of Frank’s heartbeat in your ear helped calm you down and eventually you began talking again, thankful that Frank was being so patient with you.

“I ran after that, ran as far as I could and did my best to survive on my own but it’s hard, you know? I was ten when they took me, I had no education, no family, I had nothing. I was staying at shelters and getting food where I could but then I met this man, his name was Paul, and he told me that he and a couple of others had an apartment they shared, they invited me in. I probably shouldn’t have followed him but it was freezing and it turned out fine so,” You shrugged, feeling Frank chuckle beneath you.

“I was staying with them, I was with them for a year and I let myself think I was safe but then a few days ago when everyone was asleep these people broke the door down and just started shooting everybody and I, I just froze,” Frank watched you close your eyes again, no doubt reliving the moment.

He let his hand move from your head to around your shoulders giving you a grounding, gentle squeeze, smiling sympathetically as you took a deep breath.

“They killed everyone and I couldn’t do anything. They knocked me out and the next thing I know I’m being strapped to a chair and shocked because I refused to help them.”

“What did they need help with?” Frank asked gently.

“They didn’t tell me,” You said, wracking your brain for any information that could help, “Something about a devil and making things hard for the gang they had working for them.”

Frank let out a soft chuckle because of course fucking Red wasn’t going to let a new gang wreak havoc on his city.

“Yeah that sounds like him,” Frank said, “Why’d a bunch of scientists need a gang?”

“They were taking the kids,” You told him with a grimace, “Injecting them with whatever they injected me with except not exactly because everyone gets different abilities.”

“They’re using gangs to take kids?” He snarled, “Was that all of them with you or is there more?”

“S’all of them.” You told him tiredly, feeling your eyes pull shut and you struggled when you tried to open them so decided just to let them stay closed.

“Good.” Frank said darkly, he assumed there would be more gang members involved but Red seemed to be causing enough trouble there but Frank would still keep an eye on it.

By the time he pulled himself away from his thoughts you had fallen asleep, his shirt loosely held in your fist and Frank couldn’t stop his face from softening into a smile, letting himself stay there for another minute or two before he gently pulled himself away from you, shushing Max as he stood up and went in search of a blanket for you.

Your eyes opened heavily as you felt yourself being pushed down so you were laying on your side.

“Shh, you’re good, go back to sleep, I gotchu,” Frank murmured as he placed a thick blanket around you and tucked a pillow under your head.

You nodded sleepily at him, smiling as you felt the man brush some hair from your face and let yourself do as he said, trusting that you were safe with him.

“I gotchu,” He repeated and for the first time in as long as you could remember you slept through the night without a single nightmare under the watchful eye of Frank Castle and his dog.

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Not Getting Rid of Me

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Febuwhump Prompt - Black Eye

Prompt - ‘It's been a rough few days and nothing sounds better than falling asleep in your arms.’

The air around you was hot, too hot, to the point where you could feel the sweat dripping off you. The heat, it was never a good thing when mixed with exhaustion and today was no exception as you listened as the group argued amongst themselves, glancing back at you every so often as you sat with your hands cuffed to the chair.

“I’m tellin’ ya she knows ‘im.” One of the men insisted, pointing over at you like that would help make his point.

“Man, I’m tired of hearing your damn voice. We’ve been at this for two days, she ain’t saying shit and Castle ain’t comin’ for her.” Another said as he pushed against the first man's chest.

“You wanna do that again?” The first man said, stepping forward only to be shoved back by the man you assumed was in charge.

“Shut the hell up, the pair of ya,” He snapped before he walked over to you and squatted down. From here you could see the beads of sweat on his own forehead. “Now girly, we don’t wanna be hurting ya but the thing is Frank Castle hurt a lot of my men so now I gotta deal with that, you understand, right sweetheart?”

You licked your looks, raising an eyebrow at the man before you tilted your head back only to bring it smashing down against his seconds later, eyes scrunching in pain as you pulled away before you pried them open to see the man on the floor holding his bleeding nose.

“Oh, you’re gonna regret that doll.” He warned you, spitting out a mouthful of blood as his friends helped him stand.

“Call me doll again and you’ll be the one regretting it.” You snarled, tugging against your restraints as you cursed the day you ever met Frank Castle whilst also begging for him to hurry up and find you.

“I like you, such a feisty thing ain’t ya? Too bad I gotta kill ya, slowly, painfully, coulda been nice, keepin’ ya around.” He said, brushing a strand of hair from your face causing you to lean back as far as you could with a glare. “Hell, I’ll make ya a deal, just tell me about the big, bag Punisher and I let you go.”

“I already told you,” You repeated for the twenty fifth time in the past two days, “I don’t know Frank Castle.”

“Ya expecting me to believe that, are ya? No, no, no, ya see I know ya lying to me, girly, my man said he saw Castle sneaking in and outta ya apartment, so no more bullshit now, alright? Just tell us where he is.” The man said and you didn’t even bother to respond, just shifted in your seat as you stared up at him, defiantly jutting your chin out causing him to grin.

“Ya really are a tough little thing, ain’t ya?” He told you before he swung his fist back and let it connect to your face, a pained cry leaving your lips as his brass knuckles connected with your cheek, cutting into the skin as blood leaked from the wounds.

“That was just a warning.” He told you before his fist hit your cheek once more as you desperately tried to blink back tears, face scrunched up in pain as you felt more blood pool around the cuts and slide down your cheeks.

Frank smashed the low life’s race against the brick wall before dragging him back using the strong grip he had on the guy's hair.

“I’m only gonna ask you this once more,” Frank murmured into his ear, “Who’s looking for me?”

The guy denied all knowledge once again and Frank grinned.

“Alright,” he said, pulling the guy's head back and getting ready to smash it against the wall again.

“Wait, wait, wait, maybe I know somethin’.” He said, causing Frank to pause just before his face connected with the wall. “Yeah, yeah, The Punisher right, s’what they’re callin’ you, yeah maybe some guys were talking bout you.”

“What guys?” Frank asked, losing his patience, two days of punching, shooting and killing people in this heat wave and he was still no closer to finding you.

He knew, he knew he should’ve been more careful, knew he should never have got involved with you because something like this was always going to happen.

“I don’t know,,” he said and Frank pulled his head back and the guy began sputtering again, “whoa hold up man, hold up, they were British right, they were British, s’all I know, s’all I know, s’all I know.”

Frank threw the guy on the ground and turned away, walking away with his guns drawn knowing exactly who had taken you.

It didn’t take him long to pull up to a bar, flinging the doors open and standing in the doorway with his gun raised. The room fell silent as the bartender raised a hand non threateningly, the other reaching beneath the bar.

“We don’t want any trouble.” He said, British accent filling the silence.

“You’re gonna tell me where she is and you’re gonna tell me now.” Frank said quietly, calmly, shooting a bullet into the man’s shoulder as he drew his own gun.

“I said,” he said, pressing the gun against the guy’s chest, “you’re gonna tell me where she is.”

“Hey, I don’t know who you’re talking about!” He protested.

“The guys following me took my girl, I don’t appreciate that much, so you’re gonna tell me where they’re hiding her or I’m gonna kill you, slowly, maybe I start by cutting off your fingers one at a time-“

“Alright, alright, their secrets aren’t worth my life,” the bartender gave in easily, raising his hands, “there’s a warehouse, not too far from here, that’s where they’re holdin’ her, I swear.”

Frank got the directions before he headed out of the bar, slamming the door of his van shut as he hit the gas, breaking every speeding law but that was the best of his long list of crimes.

You watched as the man lifted a pair of pliers off the work table before he crouched down in front of you.

“Now dear, this is only gonna hurt a hell of a lot.” He told you with a grin before he placed the pliers under one of your fingernails and began to pull, causing you to let out a scream.

Frank climbed out of the car, freezing as he heard your scream echo from somewhere inside the building. It took him a second to shake himself into action, grabbing his guns and making quick, but quiet, work of sneaking into the warehouse, hating that he had to follow the sound of your screams.

You withered against the restraints as your fingernails were pulled off, slowly and painfully, throwing you head back in agony. As the man moved onto the next fingernail you bucked up against the seat, trying to move any part of your body but you couldn’t, ankles and wrists tied to the chair and you let out another scream, sobbing loudly as you pleaded with him to stop, begging him.

“You want it to stop?” He laughed, shoving his face under yours. “All you have to do is tell me where the big, bad punisher is.”

You sobbed, panting for breath at the short break you were given before you shook your head, mouthing the word ‘no’ repeatedly but no sound came out.

“No, no,” he laughed, looking down at you in disbelief before over to the others in the room. “You believe this girl? Tough bitch.”

You started screaming again as he took one of your nailless finger tips in his hand, squeezing down painfully before the sound of gunshots filled the room.

You looked up, forcing your eyes open before slumping in your seat in utter relief as you watched Frank shoot down the men in the room before he marched over and grabbed the man hurting you, throwing him up against the wall and aiming the gun right between his eyes.

“You think you can touch my girl?” He snarled, pressing the gun painfully against the guy's head causing him to try and shake it off but Frank was giving him no room to move. “Hey, you think just cause you got beef with me that means you can touch my girl!”

“Hey, relax, she’s fine.” The guy said, making things worse for himself.

“Oh she’s fine is she?” Frank asked sarcastically, “Yeah cause the way I see it is my girls strapped to a chair, missing two fingernails and sporting some nasty cuts and a black eye, so you wanna tell me she’s fine again?”

The guy realised he had no way out, his men were dead on the floor and he’d pissed Frank Castle off big time. So he whimpered pathetically as he began begging for his life but Frank just smirked at him.

“You know, you’re real lucky my girl needs me right now otherwise I’d make you suffer, I’d hurt you the way you hurt her and then some but she needs me so I guess a good ol’ fashion bullet is just gonna have to do the trick.”

“No, no, no, please, please.” The guy’s cries were silenced as the sound of a single gunshot echoed around the room before Frank turned to you, crouching in front of you and cupping your injury free cheek.

“Hey, you’re alright baby, I’m here.” Frank kept up his steady, soft stream of reassuring words as he freed you of your restraints before helping you stand, wrapping your arm around him as he took your weight and practically carried you out of the room.

The drive home was silent as you clung to Frank’s hand, his thumb brushing over your skin comfortingly and it wasn’t long before you were at his apartment and being led to his bedroom and settled gently in the bed, sat up with the covers around you.

Frank was gentle as he cleaned your fingers, pressing kisses around the skin when you winced and whimpered then he turned his attention to your face. He was careful as he cleaned the cuts, thankful that they were only shallow and only needed a quick clean.

He let his thumb brush just below your bruised eyes, wincing as you winced.

“I’m so, so sorry, baby.” He murmured, eyes wide as he took in your injuries. “I never should have let this happen, told you you were better off without me and let you talk me around.”

“Hey, you’re not getting rid of me, Frank.” You laughed shakily and he let out a huff of laughter because here you were in pain and injured because of him and instead of feeling sorry for yourself which you had every right to do you were taking his hand in his and looking up at him with a comforting smile.

“Should let me go,” He said quietly, shifting so he lay next to you with his head resting on your hair and his arms around you, “should tell me to walk out of that damn door and never come back.”

“Or I could tell you that I’ve had a really hard few days and all I want to do is fall asleep with you next to me.” You said, pulling back to tilt your head up at him.

He couldn’t help the soft smile that pulled on his lips before he leaned down to press a kiss to your forehead, letting his lips linger there for a few moments before he pulled away and helped you lay down, taking you back into his arms and holding you close, mindful of your injuries.

“Never gonna let you out of my sight again.” He mumbled into your hair, smiling at the soft chuckle you let out as you cuddled closer to him.

“Sounds good to me.” You told him sleepily, feeling your eyelids blinking closed and not having the energy to open them again.

“Go t’sleep, baby, I’m right here.” And you did as the man said because despite everything you knew there was no safer place than at Frank Castle’s side.

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The One Thing I Care About

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Febuwhump Prompt - "Help Them."

Prompt - ‘That's the thing about caring about somebody...they can always be used against you.“

You could feel the cold, damp floor under your knees, could hear the constant sound of rain dripping through the cracks in the roof, could smell the dead body that was already in the room as you were dragged in and you could feel the tight zip ties that bound your wrists and ankles together.

What you couldn’t do was see anything.

You didn’t know how long you’d been taken for, had no idea where you were. All you knew was that one minute you were outside Frank’s apartment with a bag full of take out food and the next a group of men were grabbing you, covering your eyes and tying your hands, leaving you struggling with no chance of getting out.

From there you were thrown in the trunk of a car, the heat outside was already unbearable and being trapped in the trunk had you choking, desperately trying to catch your breath as sweat ran down your forehead, mixing with the tears that slipped past the blindfold.

Eventually you were pulled out of the trunk and dragged into the room you were in now, the men throwing you to the floor before you felt fists and boots connect with any part of your body they could, leaving you a sobbing mess on the floor as they finished up and left the room.

Pain spread through your entire body but you knew you had to get out of there, how you were going to do that you had no idea but sitting around waiting for whatever was to come wasn’t an option. So you struggled against the zip ties, wishing you had listened to Frank’s lessons on survival more rather than just laughing and rolling your eyes at him, promising you’d never need to use them.

Apparently the bad guys didn’t agree with that and when they couldn’t get The Punisher then they’d just take his girl and wait for him. It wasn’t a bad plan either, except for the part where none of them, no matter how many weapons they had, no matter just how many people were a part of this, none of them stood a chance against Frank Castle.

Getting free of your restraints was useless so instead you switched to trying to get the blindfold off, hoping for half a clue about your surroundings, knowing you’d get nothing about exactly where they had taken you but you could work with the things left in the room, hopefully there was something sharp enough laying around that could cut the zip ties.

But after an hour of shifting around awkwardly on the floor whilst trying to push through the pain, you hadn’t gotten very far. The knot tying the blindfold was tight, painfully tight around your head and you had to stop when you heard footsteps, crawling as far away from the direction of them as you could until you hit a wall.

You startled as the door slammed open, the sound echoing around the room before more footsteps sounded, branching off in different directions around the room. You missed the man who squatted down in front of you, only aware of him when you flinched from his touch, him grabbing your chin in between his fingers and tilting your head side to side before he let go and moments later you felt a fist connect to the side of your head causing you to bite your lip, hard enough to bleed, to suppress a cry of pain.

“Oh, it’s going to be fun killing you,” The man said, fingers trailing across the newest cut on your cheek and despite the pain you still managed to smile before huffing a laugh.

“He’s gonna kill you.” You managed to choke out, barely suppressing a grimace at the taste of blood in your mouth before you spat it at him, taking great delight in the disgusted noise you got in return.

“No sweetheart, he isn’t. I’m going to kill you, slowly, painfully and Frank Castle is going to watch it all.” He snarled as he took your jaw painfully in his hand, bringing your faces close together before he threw you onto the floor, your head connecting with it painfully.

The sounds of chuckles, a few more kicks to your chest and the sound of fading footsteps were all you were aware of before passing out.

Frank knew something was wrong when you were late. He’d tried calling you countless times before he threw the phone across the room, the only sound to be heard was Frank’s panting breaths and the sound of a phone smashing against the wall before hitting the ground.

Then the sound of guns being assembled and bags being filled with ammo and whatever weapons Frank could stuff into them filled the room. Once he was done he flew out the door, throwing the bags into the van before slamming the door and starting the engine.

Whoever thought they could take you and get away with it had another thing coming.

You awoke when you heard shouting, a man and a woman, the man pleading and the woman shouting threats. You flinched as you heard a gunshot followed by the sound of the man groaning and crying as the woman sobbed heartbrokenly.

“That will be you soon enough.” A voice sounded next to your ear causing you to jump and try and move away but you couldn’t and had to feel him run his fingers through your hair, gripping it tightly as he pulled a knife out and stabbed it into your thigh  before ripping it out causing you to sob. Your body tried to move on its own accord but the man was still holding your hair, keeping you in place. “He’s coming.” The man told you before he stood to leave.

You waited until they had left the room, the only sounds were that of the woman crying, the man's laboured breathing and you forcing cries down and panting heavily against the pain in your now bloody thigh

“Hey,” You managed to grit out, hearing the woman shift, “Can you move?”

“No, my hands,” She choked out, “They’re tied.”

Her words caused you to scrunch your eyes shut behind the blindfold as you silently cursed.

“He’s going to die.” The woman said and you bit your lip, trying to find the right words to comfort her but there were none.

“My boyfriend-” You began, swallowing against the vomit that threatened to come up” You know The Punisher? He’s coming, he’s coming and he’ll kill them all.”

The woman said nothing, only continued crying and you leaned back hating how helpless you felt, tugging against your restraints with no luck. You felt dizzy, the sudden blood loss had you fighting to stay conscious, you couldn’t fall asleep…you couldn’t.

The sound of gunshots ringing through the building were the first thing you heard when you forced your way back to consciousness, cursing yourself for giving into the blood loss so easily but smiled as you knew exactly who was causing so much noise.

“He’s here.” You slurred out, laughing slightly as you did.

The door slammed open and you sobbed as you were forced up, feeling the wound on your thigh gush more blood as a gun was held to your head. The sound of footsteps coming to a halt at the door had you smiling, knowing it was Frank.

“Let her go, you got me.” You sobbed at the sound of Frank’s voice and despite the gun to your head you relaxed automatically.

“Yes I do,” The man holding you smirked, “But we both know just killing you would be too easy, you care about her.”

“I said let her go!” Frank snapped, not lowering his gun as he desperately tried to get a shot, any shot that would take the man down before he could pull his own trigger.

“Not happening, Castle! You kill my men, I take the one thing you care about.” The man laughed and you knew Frank well enough to know he’d have the gun trained at him, knew he’d be finding a way to kill the man without hurting you.

The man’s grip on you wasn’t tight, obviously expecting the fear of the gun against your temple to scare you into stillness but he was wrong. You hated that you couldn’t see Frank but you didn’t need to, you trusted him to move in sync with you.

You took a deep breath as silently as possible, mouthed at Frank to be ready causing him to cock an eyebrow up but didn’t show any other signs that you were going to do anything. He just tightened his finger on the trigger waiting for your move.

You threw your head back, managing to headbutt the man in the face before you threw yourself onto the floor, crying as the pain from your thigh spread through your entire body, it felt like it was on fire but the sound of the gunshot cut through the pain and you couldn’t help but laugh even as the tears fell from your face.

Seconds later Frank was crouched down in front of you, gently pulling the blindfold from your face. You smiled up at him, beyond relieved to see him smiling down at you, leaning into the touch as he cupped your cheeks and brushed away your tears.

Your eyes trailed past him and you saw the woman you’d spoken to earlier crying over her boyfriend's body, not sure if he was alive or not.

“Help them.” You whispered to Frank and watched as he frowned before following your gaze and looking at the couple as if he hadn’t seen him when he entered the room.

“Gotta look after you.” You murmured back, pulling a knife out of his pocket and easily cutting at the zipties and dragging you into his arms, holding you against his chest and you couldn’t help but let more tears fall as you gripped the bulletproof vest, smiling as he pressed his lips to your head and letting them rest there.

You pulled away soon enough though, leaning up to kiss his jaw.

“Help them.” You said again, looking Frank in the eyes and watched him roll them before he nodded.

“I’ll be right back, baby.” He told you, placing a kiss to your forehead again before making his way over to them.

“Hi, I’m Frank,” He smiled at the woman and you watched with a grin as he spoke softly to her before leaning down and picking her boyfriend up after cutting her restraints and led them out of the room.

You didn’t let your eyes wander over to the dead body, just shut them as you leaned your head against the wall and let yourself fall into a light sleep knowing that you were safe, Frank was always going to keep you safe.

_______________

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No Promises

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Febuwhump Prompt - Too Weak to Move

Prompt - "I'll be here."

You let out a soft whine as you tried to sit up, struggling against the pain in your head and the way the world seemed to spin like you were on a ride at a fair. You had to pause and swallow against the sudden feeling of sickness that threatened to come up, collapsing back down as sweat pooled against your forehead.

Around you you could hear the sounds of people shouting and grunting and gunshots from somewhere around you but your ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton wool, making the fight seem like it was somewhere way off in the distance rather than happening around you.

You knew you should open your eyes, knew that keeping them closed was a bad idea and that if you fell asleep the chances of you waking back up weren’t great but you just couldn’t. You tried to force them open, focused on nothing else but opening your eyes but they refused to cooperate and so you gave up, desperately wishing you were back in a warm bed as your blood ran cold and you felt yourself getting weaker and weaker with every breath.

The pain in your head was unbearable, the bullet had skimmed directly across your temple, all the way through your hair, leaving you with a deep, bloody line. You could feel the blood pouring from the wound and knew you needed help soon but the last time you’d seen Frank he was on the opposite side of the room taking on at least six gang members, leaving you to deal with the other four.

And you had dealt with them, you killed three of them easily but missed the fourth one who snuck away before getting a shot in. You’d cried out in pain as you felt the bullet skim the side of your head but didn’t react more than that as you aimed your gun at him, killing him before you fell to the floor yourself and pulled yourself behind one of the large crates for cover.

You tried to move again but it was no use, your body refused to listen to you and you were left slumped there, hoping Frank dealt with the others quickly.

You felt yourself swimming in and out of consciousness and by the time gunshots stopped and the only sound filling the room was Frank’s panting, you were losing hold of any consciousness you had.

“Y/N?” Frank called out and you tried to lift your hand but it refused to cooperate, you tried to call back to him but it was like your throat had closed up and all you could do was let out a weak sounding groan.

Thankfully, despite the quietness of it, Frank heard you and his head snapped in your direction as he quickly made his way over to you, falling onto his knees with a soft curse. You felt his fingers on your face, felt them brush just below the wound before he moved your head to the side and traced the length of it causing you to let out a soft cry.

“Sorry baby,” he muttered softly, trying to come up with a plan, knowing he couldn’t just walk into a hospital, knowing you couldn’t go into a hospital. He let out another curse and rooted through his pocket, pulling up his contacts and finding the R section, knowing that he had no other choice and Daredevil had a nurse.

“Hello?” Red answered the phone after two rings and Frank huffed out a relieved breath.

“It’s me,” He said into the phone, keeping his attention on you and patting your cheek softly. “Hey, don’t fall asleep, ya hear me?” He said to you and you managed a weak groan.

“What happened?” Red asked and Frank knew he could probably hear you using whatever heightened senses he had.

“I need your nurse friend, it’s Midnight,” Frank told him, rolling his eyes at the nickname the media had given you, The Punisher and Midnight join forces…, you managed a weak, barely there chuckle just knowing Frank’s reaction to having to use that name. “She’s hurt and I can’t move her.”

“I’ll call Claire, where are you?”

You listened as Frank told Red where the two of you were and hoped like hell his nurse friend would get here soon enough because you weren't sure how much longer you could fight against slipping into unconsciousness.

“Hey, you still with me?” Frank asked as he hung up the phone, hand cupping your face and you desperately wanted to lean into the touch, getting more and more frustrated at your inability to move.

Somehow you managed another groan and Frank frowned down at you, brushing his thumb across your closed eyelid and wishing he could do something to help. He hated feeling useless, especially when it came to you and if anything happened to you it’d be on him. He should have realised something was wrong sooner and silently cursed himself as he looked at your bloody head.

You felt consciousness slipping further and further away, barely awake when you heard the door to the warehouse open, the noise echoing loudly through the room and cutting Frank’s soft, reassuring murmurings off. You felt him tense and heard his hand rest of his gun before a woman’s voice sounded through the room.

“Hello? I’m Claire, Daredevil said you needed help.” You didn’t need to see Frank, you knew he deflated as he realised there was no new threat, just somebody there to help.

“Over here!” He called, raising an arm for her to see him behind the crates.

You tried to let out a whine but found you couldn’t even make noises anymore as your body became heavier with exhaustion.

Frank watched the nurses every move and Claire made sure to keep her movements clear as she knelt down next to you, wincing as she looked at the wound, noticing how you didn’t flinch or make a noise as she poked at it with gloved hands.

“Is she awake?” You heard her ask Frank and you tried to make a noise, tried to twitch a finger but you couldn’t. Fear flowed through you as you desperately tried to do something but just continued to lay there, motionless.

“Hey Y/N/N, come on, wake up.” Frank pleaded with you, pale faced and feeling his own fear run through his veins as he turned to glare over at the nurse, the threat clear in his eyes of what would happen if you didn’t make it.

“She needs to be in a hospital.” Claire told him as she started rummaging through her bag.

No hospital, you tried to say but of course no words came out.

“No hospital.” Frank snapped at her for you and you smiled to yourself even if your lips didn’t move an inch. “Help her.”

“I’ll do what I can,” Claire promised, getting to work on cleaning the wound, “But I can make any promises and I need you to keep a clear head.”

Frank glared at her but didn’t say anything, just took your hand in his, willing you to move, to feel your fingers tighten against his. He felt tears prick at his eyes when you lay frozen but didn’t let them fall because you were going to be ok, you had to be ok.

“Come on, Y/N/N,” Frank muttered and you winced sharply as you felt the needle against the side of your head, though again you showed no outward reaction. “You gotta wake up, ya hear me. Ya can’t leave me on my own, not after you wormed ya way into my life.” You heard Frank let out a wet chuckle and smiled in your head as you thought back to how much effort it had taken before Frank finally accepted that you were a part of his life no matter how much he glared, grumbled and snapped at you. “If you die, I’ll bring you back and kill you myself.”

You felt the laughter and sob that mixed together inside your head but knew that you hadn’t moved and you hated it. You wanted to open your eyes, wanted to assure Frank that you were still alive and he was still stuck with you but you were too weak to do anything.

“Why isn’t she moving?” Frank choked out, looking at the nurse who was smiling at his words.

“She’s weak, she lost a lot of blood.” Claire told him, keeping her eyes on your wound and the needle in her hand.

“She gonna be alright?”  You heard him ask her and felt your heart stutter as she took a second too long to answer.

“No promises remember.” She said instead and you could practically feel the glare Frank shot at her before you felt the exhaust pull heavily at you and you ended up losing the fight to stay awake, falling into a heavy sleep.

You slept for a long time, deep enough that you didn’t feel the remaining tugs and pulls of the needle knitting you back together, didn’t feel Frank pick you up as gently as he could. You didn’t register any of the slow ride home or Frank carrying you into his apartment, placing you softly on the bed and crawling in next to you.

You didn’t know how much time had passed since the warehouse but felt pain in the side of your head causing you to let out a loud groan before you paused because finally you could make a sound again.

“Y/N/N?” You heard Frank say next to you and you turned your head, happiness and relief flooding through you as you let out a huff of laughter because you were moving again. Frank grinned over at you and it was the most beautiful sight you’d ever seen as you opened your eyes, weakly lifting your hand and cupping his cheek.

“There she is.” Frank said softly and you couldn’t help but laugh again as you traced his lips with your thumb.

“Hi.” You croaked out, wincing at the dryness of your voice.

Frank sat up causing you to pout up at him at the loss of contact but he kept smiling down at you as he helped you sit up, pausing when you winced before he grabbed a glass of water from the night stand and held it to your lips.

“You ever do that shit again, I’ll kill ya myself.” Frank promised as he sat next to you and you smiled up at him, leaning your head against his chest and cuddling into him, your smile softening as he wrapped his arm around you and let his fingers draw random shapes into your skin.

“I promise not to get shot in the head again.” You told him, fully hoping you could keep that promise but you weren’t going to hold your breath.

“Damn right you won’t.” Frank grumbled out, pressing a kiss against your hair. “How you feeling?”

“Tired.” You told him honestly, the pain in your head was still there but all you wanted to do was fall back asleep.

“She sleeps for four days and she’s still tired.” Frank laughed and then softened his voice as he shifted to make you more comfortable, so overwhelmed with relief that you were ok. “Go back to sleep, baby.”

“Stay?” You whispered against his chest as you felt your eyes fall shut on their own.

“I ain’t going anywhere.” He promised, keeping his voice low and soft, causing you to smile and the feeling of him pressing a kiss to your head was the last thing you felt before you drifted off to sleep, safe in the arms of Frank Castle.

_______________

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What Are Neighbours For?

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Prompt - requested -  62 -  “I know we’ve never talked before but there is a friggin' huge spider in my apartment. Can you kill it for me?”

You hadn’t lived in your apartment for long, a few weeks at most, but you only needed a day or two to realise that this wasn’t the type of neighbourhood were you introduced yourself to your neighbours, it was more the kind of neighbourhood were you kept your fingers on the nozzle of the small can of pepper spray attached to your keys and made sure you were in before the sun set.

Though you hadn’t actually seen your neighbours, the walls were thin enough that you could hear the one to the left of you leave his apartment at 10pm every night on the dot and return at 5am the next morning, you knew he lived alone but could be heard shouting abuse through the phone that rang almost constantly.

Then there was the neighbour across from you, from him you could hear the dog and you couldn’t help but smile when the owner took it for a walk every day at 6am and 6pm, always hearing the happy barks and nails against the floor. You had also heard what sounded like guns being assembled and clicked into place when you walked past sometimes and the one time you had listened a little too closely you could have sworn you heard police radios.

So coming to the conclusion that this definitely was not the type of place where you introduced yourself and made nice with your neighbours was an easy one and one that you were very much regretting right now as you stood still in your living room, eyes locked on the spider that had claimed a spot on your closed bedroom door.

Why was this the only place in New York City within your budget? Why couldn’t you live somewhere nice, with neighbours that wanted to get to know you and wouldn’t mind you calling over for a favour?

No, instead you were in a shady part of town in an apartment complex that was definitely filled with criminals and cursing every decision you had ever made that had led you to standing where you were.

You’d been frozen in your living room for much longer than you’d care to admit with your eyes tracking the spiders every move, granted it hadn’t actually moved more than a few times since you’d entered your apartment but still, that wasn’t the point.

The point was you were trapped in your living room when all you wanted was to collapse onto the most uncomfortable mattress in the world and go to sleep but you knew that wasn’t happening any time soon. You knew you’d never be able to deal with the damn thing on your own and there was really no other choice than to ask for help least you stand there all night because the thought of taking your eyes off the thing…damn spiders.

You knew it was well after ten by now so the neighbour to the left of you would be out doing whatever the hell he did night after night, something that you were sure you didn’t want to know about. So that left you with the neighbour who you’d heard piecing guns together on more than one occasion and honestly you were starting to think you felt safer with the spider rather than knocking on his door.

If it wasn’t for the tiredness running through you, you might have just stood there all night but you knew you had another busy day tomorrow and you’d already lost enough sleep so you took a deep breath and turned away, praying the spider would just stay where it was and opened your door, staring ahead at the closed door opposite you.

It took a few moments for your feet to work but you managed to walk the few steps from your door to his. Standing so close you expected to hear the sounds of guns being assembled or the man's dog but there was nothing but silence and that was so much worse than the man not being home.

Hoping like hell that wasn’t the case you lifted a slightly shaky fist and knocked on the door.

Relief ran through your entire body as you heard the sound of the door being unlocked and opened a second later before you paused as you stared at the man in front of you because holy-

He was quite possibly the most attractive man you’d seen, even with the fresh cut along his forehead and the one on his lip. Despite the freshness of it the man had no trouble smiling at you once he’d looked behind you towards the empty hallway before settling his gaze on you.

“Can I help you, ma’am?” He asked and you just about melted there, fighting against a blush that came with his words before you remembered the reason you were standing at his door to begin with.

“I really hope so.” You told him, biting your lip and watching as he raised an eyebrow at you. “I know we’ve never talked before but there is a friggin' huge spider in my apartment. Can you kill it for me?”

The man in front of you continued to stare at you for a long moment before his smile widened into a full grin and he let out a chuckle causing you to relax slightly, trying desperately to memorise the sound of it.

“You want me to kill a spider?” He laughed and you couldn’t help but smile sheepishly whilst nodding at him. “Sure thing, lead the way.”

“Thank you so much.” You said and he couldn’t help it as his grin softened into a smile again, looking over at you and denying the affection he felt in his chest as he followed you over to your apartment, watching as your eyes widened as you stared at a closed door.

“It was right there.” You whispered, looking wildly around the walls of your apartment as you tried to find the missing spider.

Frank could see the panic that had suddenly spread across your features as he watched you look around. He knew that he should be getting ready to head out for the night, knew that the latest gang was up to something and he intended to stop it but there was something about you and he knew full well that he wasn’t leaving until he’d killed that damn spider.

“You really don’t like ‘em, huh?” Frank asked and you couldn’t stop the shaky laugh that escaped you as you turned to face him and shook your head.

“It’s stupid I know but I’m terrified of them.” You admitted though you didn’t need to, you knew that much was obvious.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find it.” The man promised as he looked around the room.

The two of you stood in silence for a long moment before you turned to look at him. He really was stunning, even with the cuts on his face that told you what you already knew, this man was definitely trouble. The sound of guns, the coming and going at all hours, the cuts, he was clearly a dangerous man and yet here he was in a strangers apartment helping them out because you were scared.

“I’m Y/N by the way.” You said, causing him to look over at you with a smile and damn if it wasn’t a charming smile that made him look beautiful.

“I’m Frank,” He told you, “you just moved in, right?”

“Oh, um, yeah, yeah a few weeks ago.” You answered, eyes darting around the room as you spoke causing him to grin as he leaned against the back of the sofa.

“Nobody’s causing you any trouble?” He asked, causing you to look at him questioningly but he didn’t say anything else, just raised an eyebrow at you.

“Nobody in the building.” You answered honestly because it was the truth, though you knew what kind of people lived in the apartment building none of them had so much as glanced at you if you crossed paths.

The men two blocks down that you had to pass to get home however were a different story.

“Someone else causing you trouble?” Frank asked, fingers already itching to grab the gun in his waistband and go pay whoever was bothering you a little visit and there was no way he was thinking about why he felt so protective over you right now. Instead he watched as you glanced away from him for a moment, watched how you let your eyes scan the walls of your apartment again before you looked back at him with a shake of your head.

“Nobody’s causing trouble.” You eventually said but you’d had one too many close encounters with them to believe it. Sure they hadn’t actually done anything but you weren’t stupid, you’d seen the guns they had, the few times you hadn’t been quick enough had you seeing them a whole lot closer as certain members of the group came over to you, trying to invite you to join them.

It was those times you clutched your pepper spray tighter and hoped like hell you’d live to see your shitty apartment again.

“You sure about that?” Frank asked, causing you to look away from him, “If someone’s bothering you, you can tell me.”

“There’s a group of guys that hang out two blocks down, they’re always sat on the stairs to an apartment building.” You told him after a few moments of silence when Frank thought he was going to have to try and convince you to tell him. You watched as he crossed his arms over his chest and his eyebrows knitted together.

“Two blocks down?” He asked, watching as you looked at him questioningly but nodded to his question. “You’ve seen them?”

“Yeah, why do you know them?” You asked him, another reminder of the fact this guy was probably not somebody you should have willingly invited into your apartment.

Speaking of which…where the hell was that damn spider?

“Something like that,” Frank murmured as he watched you look away from him again and he let his own eyes flicker around the apartment but his thoughts were elsewhere now, picturing all the ways you could have got hurt, all the things he knew this gang did and they were so close to you.

“One of ‘em have a tattoo on his neck, some ugly black smudge?” He asked, hoping you’d say no but knowing damn well coincidences didn’t happen.

“Yeah actually he does.” You said as you turned back to face him, looking at him with something Frank couldn’t quite place. “You know them, don’t you?” You asked again and Frank let out a sigh causing your eyes to widen.

Frank knew better than to ask you if they had ever tried anything with you because he knew the answer. If they had you wouldn’t be here right now and that sent a wave of anger through him, a wave of anger he couldn’t explain because you were a complete stranger.

Except for the fact that you were beautiful and you had knocked on his door despite knowing the reputation of the residents in this building to ask him for help with a spider. He wasn’t a fool he knew someone like you would never go for someone like him but that didn’t stop the feeling of affection that ran through him, it didn’t stop him from trying to memorise your features even though he knew it was stupid.

“Don’t worry about it.” He told you softly and watched as your eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

“Are you going to do something?” You asked but you didn’t need the softly murmured yes or the nod of Frank’s head to give you an answer you already knew that he would from the second you mentioned it.

It was like being dunked in freezing cold water all of a sudden because it was one thing knowing the man was probably dangerous but it was another for him to show it so freely, like he wasn’t ashamed, like he wasn’t going to do something bad.

“You asked me if I knew them? I do, they’re traffickers. Been looking for them for weeks and all this time they’ve been two damn blocks away.” Frank told you with a shake of his head causing you to look at him questioningly.

“Why not go to the police?” You asked him softly but deep down you knew the answer, you knew the police and you knew that there would be no justice there.

“They won’t do a damn thing and even if they got ‘em, they’d be back out in a few months going back to their ways.” Frank told you, voice soft and calm and you nodded along with his words causing him to raise an eyebrow at you because you were taking this really well.

“So what, it’s on you to punish the-” Here you cut yourself off as your eyes widened at the sudden realisation and Frank stared back at you, waiting to see your reaction as he realised you’d figured out exactly who he was.

As he stared at you his eyes looked past you when he saw movement and he grabbed a takeout menu from the side table before moving from his position against the back of the sofa. As he stepped closer to you he watched as your eyes widened and you took a step back, a step closer to the spider and he had to fight back a smile as he stood in front of you.

You barely suppressed a flinch at the sudden thump to the side of your head but then followed Frank’s arm to see the take out menu pressed to the wall and let your eyes close as you realised just how close you were to the spider and without meaning to let your head fall against his shoulder.

Frank looked down at you with a soft smile that spread across his face, the feeling of affection he had felt earlier seemed to grow so much that it spread through his entire body and as he scrunched the menu up he couldn’t stop himself from wrapping his free arm around your waist, his hand coming up to rub your back.

“Thank you.” You murmured before pulling back, feeling the heat from your cheeks and cursing yourself as Frank’s smile seemed to grow, something he thought was impossible.

“What are neighbours for?” He grinned, causing you to laugh as you looked up at him, his hand still on your back.

The two of you stared at each other for what seemed like forever before an alarm sounded from Frank’s phone causing the two of you to startle and pull away from each other as he fumbled to pull his phone out and shut the alarm off one handedly.

“Can you please get rid of that?” You grimaced as you looked at the crumpled menu in his hand that held the dead spider.

“I got it.” He grinned and made his way over towards the door, you following after him and leaning against the door frame, calling his name before he got to his own door.

“Yeah?” He asked, raising an eyebrow at you.

“They’re bad guys.” You said, watching as he stared at you for a moment before he nodded, leaning into his apartment and throwing the menu down before stepping closer to you.

“Yeah, they are.” He agreed, waiting to see where you were going with this and it took a few moments before you spoke again but Frank was more than happy to take you in as he waited for whatever you had to say.

“Be careful please.” Well, that really wasn’t what he was expecting, not even remotely close actually but he couldn’t help the soft smile that made its way onto his face, nor the way his entire being was screaming at him to do something, to try something, to not mess this up.

“Promise.” He said, smiling wider as you laughed softly whilst nodding. “I should probably-” He began, making a gesture back to his apartment and through the open door you could see the guns that seemed to litter the surfaces.

That sight alone should have been enough to shut you up, everything you had learnt tonight should have scared you into silence and yet you found yourself speaking because this man wasn’t dangerous to you. He was a man who had dropped what he was doing to help you and he was a man who was going to make sure nobody else got hurt by those men.

“Do you want to have dinner tomorrow?” You asked abruptly, cutting him off.

You had thought that once the words were out of your mouth then you’d regret it but instead you felt a bubble of excitement that only grew as Frank’s eyes widened and a soft pink flush spread across his cheeks as he nodded.

“Dinner would be nice.” He finally managed to say, disbelieving of the fact that you had asked him out.

How the hell did someone like you see anything good in someone like him? And it wasn’t like you didn’t know him, hell you’d spent half an hour with him and realised he was the damn Punisher and still you asked him out.

He would not screw this up.

“See you tomorrow then.” You told him with a smile that threatened to break out into a grin at any moment.

“Goodnight, Y/N.” He said, hesitating for a moment before his head dipped down and his lips connected with your cheek, a soft brush before he was pulling away and heading into his apartment.

You closed your own apartment door, smiling into the spider free space as you let your head rest against the door thinking about the world of trouble that would probably come from this decision. You had just asked a man you knew was dangerous out on a date and found you didn’t have it in you to regret it, besides it wouldn’t hurt to have the Punisher around to kill any future spiders.

_______________

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I See You In My Dreams

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Requsted - Yes, @pokey-hedgehog, I'm so sorry this took so long, hope you enjoy it🤎

Prompts -  Forehead kiss, sleepy hug, "I had a nightmare about you and I wanted to make sure you were okay." & "It'll be alright, it was just a nightmare."

You shot upright in your bed, head spinning at the speed in which you’d shifted from laying down to sitting up. The bedsheets moved with you, falling from your chest to gather around your waist as your fingers buried themselves into the fabric. You could hear the sound of your heart hammering in your chest, the sound seemingly echoing around the whole room and your breaths came out in quick little pants that made you even dizzier.

You knew it had been a nightmare, it was one version of the same nightmare you’d been having for months now, each time it ended the same way even if the events leading up to the outcome differed.

Usually you were able to calm down, able to control your breathing and ground yourself with reality. Usually waking up after this nightmare had you lying awake for an hour or so before you finally drifted off again but tonight was different.

Tonight your brain refused to cooperate with the rational side of things, the side that told you Frank was in the room right next to yours, alive and breathing. Logically you knew he was safe but there was a pit in your stomach, anxiety spreading through your whole body as flashes of Frank’s dead body filled your mind and tears began to fall down your cheeks.

Ever since Frank had unintentionally saved you from the gang you had been sold to years ago you had been in his care, no family to speak of and nowhere to call home. You knew at first Frank hadn’t expected you to live with him but after a few months he had confessed to you one night that he didn’t want you to leave, that you always had a space here, had a place that was home. 

Before he had told you that you were still keeping yourself closed off from the man, of course you soaked up his kind touches and soft words, things you hadn’t experienced in as long as you could remember, but you also didn’t want to get too attached, knowing the man would want you gone as soon as possible. Once he had told you he wanted you to stay things shifted between the two of you, you started seeking out his comfort without him needing to initiate it first, now if you were having a bad day you didn’t feel scared to curl up next to him with your head on his shoulder, waiting for his arm to wrap around you and pull you even closer and talk openly with him. 

Life with Frank was easy, it was nice, and you were so glad he had found you all those months ago.

He hadn’t had an easy time getting you out though, you knew every secret that the gang had, people were quite willing to speak around you, not seeing you as a person so much as a thing to be beat on and snapped at. Frank had you behind him, his jacket covering your body as he shot gang member after gang member. You were so relieved to be finally getting out, to see that these men couldn’t hurt you anymore but when one peaked out from his hiding spot, spotting Frank before Frank saw him and fired bullet after bullet you felt your heart stop and your blood run cold, tears falling faster down your face as you began to mourn both your freedom and the man who hadn’t hesitated to pull you out, to put himself between you and the rain of bullets.

In reality, Frank stumbled back with the force of the bullets but otherwise didn’t seem too concerned as he turned his own gun and fired it once, hitting the man straight away and you could only watch through shocked, bleary eyes as his body slumped to the ground lifelessly. When he moved forward but realised you weren’t following him he turned around in concern and you sobbed in relief as you saw the bullet proof vest, Frank’s eyes softening as he pulled you into his arms and led you out of the building, one hand cupping the back of your head to keep you buried against his chest and not able to see him kill more people. 

In your dreams it was always different versions of the same thing. Sometimes Frank didn’t have the protection of the bulletproof vest, sometimes the gunman aimed for Frank’s head, each time you were frozen to the spot, helpless to do anything but sink to your knees beside the lifeless body and sob into his chest. The dreams became more intense, more real, more terrifying the closer you got to Frank. Losing him when he had first taken you from the gang would have hurt but if it happened now you weren’t so sure you would recover.

Finally the overwhelming anxiety and fear became too much as your head produced image after image of Frank dead in a pool of his own blood and you had to pull yourself from the bed, every inch of your body shaking despite the fact that you felt like you were on fire and beads of sweat pooled on your forehead.

You quickly but quietly made your way out of your bedroom door and over to Frank’s. The door was already left half open, something you knew Frank did to let you know you were welcome at any time, something which you were immensely grateful for now as you slipped through the gap and into his room. 

It was still dark outside but the streetlights casted enough of a glow that you could see Frank lying in bed, unfortunately the blankets covered his chest so you couldn’t just quietly confirm that he was in fact still breathing and slip out again. Instead seeing him so still had more tears sliding down your face and your breathing quickening even though it was already impossibly fast already.

You stepped closer until your legs knocked against the bed and huffed a sigh of relief as Frank shifted before his eyes opened, heavy with sleep before they filled with concern and he sat up, immediately reaching for you, and pulling you down onto the bed with him, his arms wrapping around you and pressing you against his chest. Frank rocked the two of you back and forth in an attempt to calm you down but something about seeing that he was alright seemed to cause your sobs to louden and your breathing to become even more erratic.

“M’sorry, m’sorry,” You managed to choke out between sobs but the man just shushed you, continuing to rock you in his arms.

“None of that now, sweetheart.” Frank murmured, pressing his lips to your temple, and feeling how hot and sweaty the skin was. “You’re alright, I’ve got ya, I got ya, kid.” 

“I had a nightmare,” you sobbed into his chest, somehow forcing the words out even with how much your chest hurt from your sharp breaths, “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m alright, kid, I’m right here, not going anywhere, you don’t gotta worry about that.” Frank told you softly but firmly as his heart ached at seeing his kid in such a state. 

“You’re okay?” You managed to ask again and Frank pulled you back far enough so you could see his face and the soft, comforting smile he gave you.

“I’m okay, ain’t nothing gonna happen to me.” He promised and with those words you sagged against him, Frank felt the tension leave you as you melted into him, gripping his shirt like it was your only lifeline. “Hey, you wanna copy my breathing for me? Deep breaths in and out for me, yeah just like that, attagirl,” Frank praised, feeling himself relax as your breathing finally began to slow into a normal rhythm. “That’s my girl, that’s my girl, good job, you’re okay, I got ya.” 

It felt like it had been hours but finally your breathing was steady, your chest still ached but you could breathe easier now and your sobs had slowed to sniffles as a result of the constant rocking and comforting words being whispered by Frank. 

Now you were just left feeling exhausted and drained, any bit of energy you had had simply disappeared but you still pulled back slightly, not going far but far enough so you could look up at Frank who gave you a soft smile, letting one of his hands come up to wipe at your cheeks softly.

“I saw you die.” You whispered, afraid that saying the words out loud would make them true but instead Frank’s smile widened a small bit and he shook his head.

“I ain’t dying on you, don’t gotta worry about that.” Frank assured you, using the hand on your cheek to guide your head towards him so that he could lean down slightly and press a soft, lingering kiss to your forehead which you easily relaxed into, making no move to pull away until he did. “It’ll be alright, it was just a nightmare, you ain’t getting rid of me that easy.” 

The words pulled a laugh out of you that sounded strained but still made Frank’s face light up as he looked down at you and you pulled your arms from where they were trapped between your body and Frank’s to wrap them around his waist, Frank not even hesitating to wrap you in his arms again, holding you close.

You felt your eyes become heavy and found them falling shut as you hugged Frank, one of his hands running up and down your back in a way that made it even easier to relax into him and you couldn't help but cuddle further into him, a smile pulling at your lips as you felt more than heard his chuckle from your place against his chest.

You had figured you weren’t getting any sleep for the rest of the night, figured your emotions would be too all over the place and mind too distracted but by the time Frank was repositioning the two of you so that you were laying down in his bed, you resting more on him than the mattress you found you were already more than halfway asleep and couldn’t find the strength to open your eyes again.

The last thing you felt before you fell asleep was Frank’s lips on your head and his softly murmured assurance that he was ok, that you could sleep now and he’d watch over you before you did as he said and drifted off into a peaceful, dreamless sleep safe in the man’s arms, the steady beat of his heart under your head letting you know he was safe too.

___________________

Frank Castle Taglist -

@call-me-a-fool, @sylvies4ever, @lucyysthings, @freeshavocadoooo, @writeroutoftime, @srhxpci @mrslizzyolsen, @shatteredlovesick, @ack3rlevi, @avengersbabe13, @bxmaaa, @lucyysthings 

I've Been Waiting For You

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Angstember Prompt - “Don't look"

It seemed like a lifetime ago you were in an entirely different place, despite the repetitiveness of the days each of them was still different enough that you held your breath every morning when one of the many men watching the growing group of people came in. All different types of people were being held, men, women, girls, and boys of all ages. 

You knew that the day was guaranteed to have some sort of pain, at least one moment but usually more than a handful where you just wanted to curl in a ball and cry. The days were long and the nights even longer, when you finally did have a moment’s peace it was spent on edge, silently begging somebody to come and rescue you, begging for anybody to save you.

One day things changed, it started out much the same as any other day with one of the men barging into the room but instead of yelling for you all to get ready he walked further into the room, two other men following close behind, and made his way to you. The smirk on his face had your stomach churning and you knew something worse was coming.

You hardly put up a fight as your wrists were bound together behind your back, how could you when they hardly fed you? The small bit of food you did get was shared with the younger children, the look of hunger and fright on their faces managed to get you to shove your own hunger down. 

From there you were led out of the room, scared eyes watching your every step until everything went dark as a blindfold was placed over your eyes. You felt your breathing quicken, tears filled your eyes but you scrunched them shut tightly to prevent them from falling, knowing that whatever was about to happen would only be ten times worse if they saw you crying. 

You didn’t know what was to come but you did know that when somebody was taken from the big room you were all forced into they never came back. Screaming could usually be heard once they were taken and everybody assumed the worst from that point.

It wasn’t until you felt the cold air that you paused, the man behind you shoving you forward causing you to stumble over your feet before you righted yourself and continued on. You couldn’t remember the last time you had actually been outside, for so long you had been trapped within the walls of wherever they were holding you and despite your desperate, silent pleas to be rescued you had long since given up hope of it ever actually happening.

You forced a sob that threatened to escape your throat down, knowing that you weren’t actually free, in fact it was probably the opposite. You felt yourself get grabbed by the man behind you, his large hand wrapping around your bicep as he stopped you only to shove you into a car seconds later. You were forced between two of the men that had led you out whilst the other drove, no words being spoken the entire journey as you tried to prepare yourself to die.

You couldn’t say how long the car ride lasted, the blindfold that was still tightly in place prevented you from even taking a guess at what time it was. It seemed to take forever though before the car pulled to a stop and the doors were being opened. 

The man to your right shoved you out of the car, you had almost fallen to the ground if not for one of them catching you by the arm again. He dragged you along with him, the air around you felt colder now so you assumed at least a good few hours had passed since you’d gotten in the car.

You tried to steady your breathing but found it was too difficult, your breath coming out in fast bursts that ached your chest. You flinched as a loud knock filled the silence, the sound of a heavy door opening coming a moment later.

The air in the room was almost suffocating compared to the cold outside but it finally forced a deep breath out of you. Music could be heard alongside several different conversations that you couldn’t make out and the smell of cigarettes and alcohol filled the room. 

You were dragged through the room, walking until you were forced to stop and the blindfold was ripped from you. Despite the darkness of the room you still had to blink hard to adjust to it, low lights that barely lit the room up but did well enough of a job that you saw a group of men all sat around a table, half-drunk glasses scattered in front of them and they all had their attention on you. Hungry eyes darting up and down your figure as you resisted the urge to shudder.

“You always do bring such beauties for me.” A man at the head of the table grinned and you just about suppressed a grimace at the expression. 

“Boss said she’s all yours, payment for the ammo.” One of the men behind you said and this time you couldn’t hide your reaction, it was only a widening of your eyes but you knew the man at the table had seen it as his grin widened wickedly.

“A pretty payment indeed.” He replied, his eyes having yet to leave you even as he waved a dismissive hand to the two men who had escorted you in. 

Once the men had gone the man at the table stood and you forced yourself to stand still as he approached you, his hand coming up to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear before his fingers grazed your cheek.

When he flicked a blade in front of you, however, that’s when you couldn’t hide your flinch, the blade coming closer towards you had you fighting to stay still.

“Relax gorgeous,” He murmured softly, the blade cutting away the rope restraints on your wrists and the man brushing his thumb over the raw skin. “I’ll take real good care of you.”

Months passed much the same as they always had except this time instead of answering to the group of men who had originally taken you, you now answer to Julian. He treated you just as poorly as the others had, fed you just as little though thankfully you didn’t have to share with anybody. You had long since given up on your silent prayers of rescue, came to the realisation nobody was coming, that this was your life now.

Every night without fail you went to bed sore and with tears falling down your face unsure of just how much more of this you could take.

Bruises seemed to cover most of your body, a brutal beating from Julian after a rival gang had betrayed him. You were left curled up, unable and unwilling to move. Months and months of constant beatings and you couldn’t do it anymore. 

You stayed where you were for a while, probably would have stayed there even longer had you not flinched into a sitting position, every part of you aching and protesting the move but the reaction was automatic when hearing a gunshot, the shooter seemed to keep his finger on the trigger for a while as it didn’t pause, it just continued shooting.

Julian ran into the room, pale faced with sweat pooling on his forehead as he looked at you with wide eyes. You didn’t have time to react, before you knew it the man was yanking you up and placing you in front of him as he backed out of the room, his gun stretched in front of him to your right, visible to you as you looked at it in fear, knowing that with one wrong move and the man wouldn’t hesitate to take your life.

Eventually Julian made it to the safe room, it was only small, the doorway disguised so that it couldn’t be found in a situation like this. Julian kept you in front of him, kept his gun raised and the only sound to be heard was his heavy breathing as you tried to stay as silent as possible even with the tears making their way down your face, mixing with the dried blood that had poured from cuts made by his rings earlier. 

The silence seemed to last for hours, tension heavy in the air as the sound of gunshots finally stopped. It was so silent that the sound of heavy boots outside in the hallway could clearly be heard from behind the safe room door, Julian's grip on your arm was painfully tight as he held you in place. You weren’t exactly sure what his plan was, he had made a lot of enemies with other gang members in the time you had known him and not one of them would hesitate to kill you to get to him, all he was doing was buying himself maybe a few more seconds.

The door opened and your eyes widened at the man before you, two guns were held in his hands as he filled the doorway, the light behind him making him look even more dangerous though you supposed the blood covering him also helped with that image. 

The man didn’t move, just stood before the two of you and you felt Julian’s fingers digging into your skin somehow even tighter than they already had been, you were close enough to feel him shaking as he shot his own gun.

You flinched at the deafening noise right next to your ear, tears flowing faster down your face because despite the fact you knew the man wouldn’t keep you alive if it meant killing Julian there was some part of you, some small part that you thought had died a long time ago, that hoped the man would help you get away from this gang, from Julian, but Julian had ruined it.

Your eyes fell shut, not wanting to watch as the man who could have changed your life was killed.

Instead though you heard the sound of the other man’s gun, one single shot came from him before you felt Julian slump forward against your back. You hadn’t even fully registered what had happened, barely felt his weight before you were being pulled away from Julian. The stranger moved the guns to rest on his back as one arm wrapped around your shoulder and the other guided your head to his chest, holding you against him so you couldn’t move.

“Don’t look,” He murmured to you when you tried to pull away to look into the safe room, “He can’t hurt you anymore, I promise.”

With those words you began to sob, for the first time in years you didn’t try to suppress the noise, you just let them out as the man guided you from the building, never once letting go of you. 

By the time you got to the man's van your sobs had calmed into sniffles and shaky breaths even as the tears continued to flow down your cheeks, the man held the door open for you and you climbed in despite your reluctance to let go of him. The man gave you a soft smile, a stark contrast to how he had looked before in the doorway, taking his jacket off and wrapping it around you before shutting the door gently and making his way over to the driver's side.

The journey was silent, you didn’t know where the man was taking you but you didn’t care. It felt easy to trust the man, maybe trust wasn’t the right word but you certainly didn’t think he was a part of another gang. You had met many gang members and none of them had ever been quite as gentle with you.

Eventually the two of you pulled up to an apartment complex and Frank was the first to get out, you sat in your seat staring up at the building unable to remember a time when you yourself had lived in a crappy run down building with family members you couldn’t quite recall. 

You jumped slightly when the man opened the door for you, you knew he had seen it but didn’t comment on it, instead he gave you a small smile and held a hand out for you which you took gratefully. It was slightly overwhelming walking into the building, even more so walking into the man’s apartment and being greeted by an excited dog jumping up at you.

You couldn’t help but flinch as it did, your experience with dogs was limited but the gang had some that they used to scare people and it worked, the dogs weren’t afraid to attack when commanded though you did feel awful for them once you saw exactly how the members trained them to do it.

“Down,” The man commanded, not having to raise his voice or lift his fist to get the dog to listen and you watched in slight awe as the dog whined but did as his owner told him before trotting off to a dog bed in the living room. “He’s a big softie really.” The man told you and you couldn’t help the small, barely there smile that pulled at your lips, something that hadn’t happened in a long time, as the man shot his dog a soft look before turning his attention to you just in time to watch you shiver slightly.

“I’ll get you some clothes,” The man told you, gesturing for you to follow him into a bedroom.

You stood in the doorway, arms wrapping around yourself to fight against the chill. You were glad for the man's jacket covering your less than clothed body. The lack of clothing was something you had long since grown used to, not having been allowed to wear proper clothing since you were taken and you couldn’t but feel excited at the chance to wear some, to actually be warm and covered for the first time in years. 

“They’ll be a bit big but they’ll do,” he said as he handed you some clothing, “Come out when you’re ready.” 

He waited until you gave him a nod before he left the room, closing the door behind him with a soft click. You could only stare down at the clothing in your hands for a few moments, brushing your hands along them and feeling how soft they were.

You eventually managed to move again, peeling off the jacket and the little clothing you had before changing into the man’s clothes, blinking against the sudden wave of tears that filled your eyes again, completely overwhelmed at everything around you, at the fact that you were finally free from the men who had taken you, free from Julian and his men.

Once you were done you opened the door, your old clothes bundled in your hands as you looked around and spotted Frank in the kitchen, two steaming bowls in front of him. 

“Give me them,” he said, reaching to take the old clothes from you and not even hesitating to throw them in the trash much to your amusement and you couldn’t stop the small giggle that left your lips, the man’s face lighting up at the sound. “Sit down, got some soup for you, eat as much as you want.”

The two of you sat at the small table, knees brushing against each other as you picked the spoon up and brought it to your lips. Despite it being such a plain meal to most, to you it was the best thing you had tasted. It warmed you from the inside and you couldn’t stop yourself from scooping more into your mouth.

The man ate his own soup at a much slower pace, watching you with amused eyes though a sympathetic smile played on his lips. So many questions flooded his head, how long had you been with Julian’s gang, how long had you been beaten and starved, when had you been taken, were there more of you?

He waited until you had finished, until you had declined another bowl before he broke the peaceful silence that had settled between you as you ate. 

“You got anywhere to go kid? Any family?” He asked gently, not wanting to upset you but if there was somebody out there for you he’d make it his goal to get you back to them.

You shook your head, looking away from him as you did. Obviously you were sad about your family but over the years you had sort of forgotten things about them, you knew the basics, remembered how many people made up your family but forgot what they looked like, forgot exactly where you had lived with them. You were so young when you were taken the few memories you did have were quickly replaced with ones from the first place you had stayed immediately after being taken. 

This life was the only one you truly knew and that was terrifying.

“That’s alright,” Frank told you softly, causing you to look up at him with wide eyes, watching as he reached over slowly and took your hands in one of his to stop you from nervously picking at the skin. “You can stay here.”

“Thank you,” You told him, voice breaking as tears filled your eyes again and several managed to trickle down your cheek, “Thank you for saving me.” 

Frank smiled at you as he leaned over to raise his hand that wasn’t holding yours up, keeping his movements nice and slow so you could see exactly what he was doing. He gently brushed the few tears that trailed down your cheek away, smile widening as you leaned into the touch as he thought about how long it had been since somebody touched you without bad intentions. 

Frank swore in that moment he would never let anybody hurt you again and the people that had already done so were next on his list. He was going to make sure every single one of them paid the price for what they had done to you.

______

Frank Castle Taglist /

@call-me-a-fool , @sylvies4ever  @lucyysthings , @freeshavocadoooo , @writeroutoftime ,  @mrslizzyolsen ,  @avengersbabe13 , @bxmaaa , @lucyysthings , @currentobsessionrabbithole , @myguiltypleasures21 , @luluwinchester , @polyglot-noodle , @alexxavicry , @bubsonnobx , @eddiefrickenmunson , @valluvsu

keepin’ busy

request: 5. “I know a few ways we could keep busy…” 19. “Pornhub is giving away free premium right now you perv. Get away from me.” 20. “That’s a dangerous game to play if we’re gonna be stuck with each other for the next four weeks.” with Frank Castle? idk how many prompts per request we're meant to send so I picked my fave 3

summary: frank’s been a lot more… tense, since quarantine started. whether that’s because he’s not taking his rage out on bad guys late at night or because he’s stuck in your house without a little privacy? that’s anyone’s guess… 

pairings: frank castle x reader

word count: 1.9k

warnings: suggestive content, frank has nice hands ;) 

a/n: if only we could go back to a time where we all thought we were getting like, eight weeks off… hah…haha…hahaha…whew… on a less depressing note, jon bernthal is really fucking hot. pretty pretty please send in some requests for my boy frankie :( i love him so much. If you’ve had any ideas floating around you’d like to see written out to completion, now’s the perfect time to see it happen! maybe some smut, or fluff, or angst, or anything really… big love <3

He wasn’t supposed to be staying with you. But apartment hunting when your face has been all over the news recently as one of America’s Most Wanted criminals in the state of New York is kind of hard to do, not to mention when there’s a global pandemic going on. You knew first hand, apartment hunting was hard enough as is. At first, you didn’t really notice him. He would always be out going on runs, exercising in the basement in order to not disturb any neighbors, and guarding the streets at night, like a vigilante cop. Soon, he was staying home more than he was patrolling. Frank still got out from time to time, but it was hard to catch bad guys when they were at home, drinking and sleeping and waiting to be able to go back to causing trouble again.

You hadn’t touched anyone in weeks. You were starving for affection of any kind. You missed hugging your friends, awkward cheek kisses from your family, even shaking hands with strangers at this rate. What you wouldn’t give for a nice firm handshake… 

It was driving you crazy. Frank on the other hand, was making the most out of his time stuck in your apartment. He had recently gotten into a netflix show, you had noticed, which was just one of the luxuries exposed to him during the pandemic. He strummed on your old guitar, the one you barely played anymore, if at all. It was a surprise to hear, but you knew from the familiar sounds of tuning and plucking strings that it was not coming from the television. It was a nice thing to see, him hunched over on your couch, guitar case open on the floor, fiddling with the capo for a song he knew by heart. It was nice he could let his guard down a little bit. He was even learning how to cook, and could make a mean fettuccine alfredo for the two of you. 

Frank was a very domestic man outside of his nightly routine of making New York a cleaner place to live. 

Nights were different now. You two sat together on the couch, your head on his shoulder, dozing off against him as he tried to clue you in on what was happening. It was a gangster show, but that was the only thing you gleaned from his run down. 

“I bet you were a mafia man in a past life,” you said, breaking the silence between the two of you. He tore his gaze from the television.

“What?” he said, smiling down at you. You didn’t look away from the TV, but continued.

“Like, a mafia boss or something. Yeah, I can see that.” “Where is this comin’ from?” he asks.

You hum as you imagine it, ignoring his question. 

“You’re weird,” he comments, and he puts his legs up on the coffee table.

“You can see?” he asks, and his feet are in the way of the screen but you’re not really watching it anyway, so you nod your head against his shoulder. He moves his arm behind your head and rubs your shoulder softly before resting it over the arm of the couch. You readjust yourself, head on his thigh, curling up into Frank. It became easier to listen to his breathing when he turned the volume down a bit, fully aware of you on his lap. It didn’t take long before you dozed off, but when you woke up, you were in your bedroom, shrouded in darkness, covered carefully by a comforter. 

OVER the course of the coming week, the two of you get closer. You’d even become invested in the show he’d started watching. 

With your closeness, you hadn’t noticed you started touching Frank a lot more. 

Nothing you wouldn’t do to your other friends. It was mainly just laying your head on his, playing old hand games you remembered from your childhood, and petting the back of his neck. It was absent minded, and it was only because he had shown you how to cut his hair with his old beard clippers. When asked about why you would run your hands over the prickly surface, you explained it felt nice, and that you had the right to admire your handiwork. 

Later into the quarantine you ordered a palmistry book, and since nobody else was around, you asked Frank to read his palms. He of course was hesitant, but did as you asked, handing over his right hand for you to examine. His nails were nicely trimmed, you noticed immediately. The tips of his fingers were calloused, as were his palms, the skin cracked under harsh and constant use. He held the flashlight from your phone as you read from the book and bent and pulled at the taut skin there. You read him his diagnosis, and he said it was all bullshit, like astrology. You just think he didn’t like being labelled as a dreamer. 

It really only heated up when you asked for the massage.

You said it as a joke, but Frank was by your side, rolling his eyes and pushing up the sleeves on his black Henley before you looked up at him.

“Oh shit, you’re actually gonna do it?” You mused, flipping yourself over. Very briefly you were self conscious of your lounge shorts and novelty shirt that was a size too big. But just for a second, because then Frank was straddling your back, considerately resting most of his weight on his knees, kneading your shoulders with his big hands. His palms work the knots out and you breathe a little lighter as he trails downward, pressing hard into your lower back. It makes you moan a little bit, but if he hears you, he doesn't acknowledge it. He takes precious time down there, all fingers and knuckles and palms, pushing hard into your soft skin, almost like he’s done this before. 

You feel him back up off of you, and you note the lack of contact, making you open your eyes for a second. His thumbs push and pull the soft flesh of your calves. It’s only moments before they move softly up your thigh, sending shivers down your back. He goes just a smidgen too high for comfort. It makes your heart jump into your throat, and you wriggle out from his grip.

“Pornhub is giving away free premium right now, you perv. Get away from me,” you say playfully, smile on your face. It’s not contagious.

“I thought that’s what you wanted?” He spoke, confused. Your brows furrowed.

“What?”

“You’ve been doing little things all week like that… ‘thought you wanted me to… God, never mind. I’m just… I’m sorry,” he apologizes, and stands up from the couch. 

You’re dumbfounded. You don’t know what to do. But you know you don’t want him to leave.

“What?” you respond again, this time with even more confusion.

“Don’t worry about it, you’re fine,” he says, making his way down the hall. Did he mean what he said? Did he say what he meant?

You stood up hastily to follow him, tripping over your own feet in pursuit. His hand is on the door handle to your office, which had since been converted into a room for Frank, complete with luxuries such as a pull out futon and fast internet speeds (thanks to the router being in there).

“Frank,” you said, stopping at the beginning of the hallway. You watched his hand grip the knob. His shoulders rise and fall with his breathing.

“I…” you start, but don’t know where to go. What to say. You’re confused, and you don’t want him to be upset. Not even at you, just in general. You can’t stand the lack of contact with the outside world already. It would suck to be alienated by your… roommate? If you could even call him that.

“What is this?” you say, and he spins around to look at you. 

Now it’s his turn to be confused.

“What?” he questions, and his shoulders are squared and tense.

“Where is this coming from? I mean… yeah, but… me?”

His brows are furrowed and he squints at you suspiciously.

“You?” He questions.

“I guess quarantine is taking a toll on everyone, and you can’t really see anyone else… do you… do you really want…”

“Do I really want what?”

You could barely look at him, eyes tracing the wood patterns in the floor and the door behind him. 

“Do you want that, Frank?” You ask. Your eyes meet his.

“Do I want what?” He asks again, irritated. You sigh gently, and your feet move on their own accord, anticipation and worry festering where your heart should be. He watches you come to him.

You stand in front of him, your feet almost touching, your hands by your side.

His eyes are dark in the dimly lit hallway. His gaze is intense.

You reach your hand out to him, taking one of his hands in yours and squeezing it, pulling it closer to you. He moves his head closer to yours, tentatively stopping within centimetres of your lips.

Then he’s on top of you, pushing his lips into yours, unyielding and feverish. His hand comes up to cup the nape of your neck and you breathe heavily into the kiss, softening under his touch. 

He pulls away, and you’re panting with the intensity of it.

“That’s new,” you say, backing up slightly. He smiles mischievously.

“We can take it slow.”

THE television in your room is smaller than the one in the living room, and has remained largely unused since Frank moved in. 

It’s nice to have Frank in bed with you. There are flashes of color bouncing off the walls of your dark bedroom. It’s not Frank’s mafia show tonight. It’s the news.

“It’s crazy out there,” you interrupt. “Never seen anything like it.”

Andrew Cuomo is on screen, making important announcements about the state of New York, when he changes your whole outlook in just a few words.

Statewide shutdown ends May 15th, adding another month on top of your quarantine with Frank. A lot longer than you had originally anticipated.

“That’s... two whole months, huh?” He ponders, your back pressed up against his chest in your bed.

“I know a few ways we could keep busy…” you suggested, tracing patterns up his arm. You tilted your head up to look at him.

“That’s a dangerous game to play if we’re going to be stuck with each other for the next few weeks,” he spoke quietly, tension thick in the air. He was so close you could feel his breath on your lips. 

His hand cups your chin and throat, and you swallow hard, gaze unwavering. You lick your lips inadvertently. 

He comes in even closer, and envelopes you in a soft kiss. Frank being a sweet lover, you never would have guessed. Your skull is cradled in his big hands, and it makes you notice how vulnerable you are to him. Your neck exposed, bodies pressed against each other in a hot passion. His lips are a little rougher down other parts of your body, but his hands are always soft and firm, touching and squeezing and dragging his fingertips down your stomach. He’s painstakingly slow with it, and it makes your breath hitch in your throat. What a tease. He knows what he’s doing to you, and it drives you crazy. It would be a long night. 

Frank knows how to take care of a partner, too. Only in his case, it’s not bandaging and stitching. It’s much, much more pleasant.